When Vanessa Riddick’s beloved older brother, Tony, aka Basco, dies unexpectedly, finding his journal leads to more discoveries…like his secret life and friendships in the local BDSM community. Vanessa’s world revolved around work and her brother, so she gravitates to his friends, who welcome her with open hearts.

Reed and Lyle were friends and play-partners with Basco and wondered what happened to him, why he’d suddenly dropped off the radar. As they get to know his little sister, they realize their interest in her is more than trying to keep the spirit of their friend alive.

They are falling for her.

Vanessa has lived her life in a career-driven stranglehold, and now the loss of her brother has sent her into an emotional tailspin. One thing’s for certain—she can’t keep going the way she is. And she’s beginning to wonder if Reed and Lyle might be the answer to her finally having the life she’s longed for.

A Siren Erotic Romance

Tymber Dalton is a Siren-exclusive author.

User Reviews

I love this book! The heartbreak of losing someone so close to you never really goes away, however you learn to live again and the pain lessens some. The bloom of a new relationship or friendship is f...

Excerpt

STORY EXCERPT

“So you guys were friends with Ton—Basco?” she asked.

Tilly reached out and patted Vanessa’s hands. “We had a slight misunderstanding when she first got here,” Tilly said without a trace of her usual trademark snark in her tone. “She told us her brother was Tony and…” She pointed with one hand, palm up, at where Tony was starting to teach.

“I’m so sorry,” Vanessa said.

Tilly squeezed her hands. “It’s okay, seriously.”

Reed wanted to be the one comforting her instead of Tilly.

“Yes, we were friends with Basco,” Reed said. “Play partners.”

“I just…I don’t know how or what to ask.”

“You can ask us anything,” Lyle assured her as Jenny slipped an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll do our best to answer it.”

“They mean it,” Jenny told her. “One thing about this lifestyle is people quickly learn that communication is extremely important.”

Vanessa looked at where Tilly still clasped her hands around hers. “I wish he’d felt like he could have communicated to me about this.”

* * * *

Reed and Lyle seemed like nice guys, which was probably why her brother had mentioned them a lot in his journal. While he hadn’t come right out and said he loved the two men, it was patently obvious to her through her readings that Basco had a deeper affection for them, felt a closer affinity to them, than toward most other people in the lifestyle.

Tonight, they both wore jeans and short-sleeved, button-up shirts. Not exactly the garb she would have expected from Doms. Or subs. Or switches, or whatever it was they called themselves.

They seemed like two ordinary guys who wouldn’t get more than a second glance from her normally, and that only because they were both fairly attractive men, by her standards.

Reed looked like he spent a lot of time out in the sun, with his tan and the lines at the outer corners of his blue eyes, and the sun-lightened tint to his short, brown hair. Lyle had sweet brown eyes and black hair with only a few sprinkles of grey at the temples.

If she had to guess, from his paler skin tone, she figured he worked in an office.

“Sometimes,” Lyle said, “people don’t want to burden their families with this. It can be kind of personal. They worry they’ll be shunned or disowned. It’s happened a lot before.”

“But I wouldn’t have done that.” She stared at Tilly’s hands, trying not to remember how she’d clasped Tony’s hands, willing him to get better even as he sharply declined, before the medical staff forced her away from his bedside as they tried heroic measures to save his life.

“It’s like sex lives,” Reed said. “It’s not always something people are comfortable discussing with other family members unless they absolutely can’t avoid the issue.”

“Basco and I could talk about anything,” she said. “At least, I thought we could.”

“It doesn’t mean he loved you any less,” Reed told her.

“He told us how much you meant to him,” Lyle said. “How much he loved you. That he was glad he was living with you and able to be a part of your life. He made it clear to us from the beginning that you always came first with him. That there might be times he had to ditch us at the last-minute if you needed him, and we were perfectly fine with that. He hated that his ex got in the way of his relationship with you for so long.”

She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse, even though it gelled with what she’d read in her brother’s journal.

“I wish I’d known about this. I would have told him I was okay with it since it made him happy.” She tipped her head toward where Tony was teaching. “I’ve read far kinkier stuff in books than I’ve seen here yet. This is not what I was expecting. At all.”

“Thought you’d see nekkid people swinging from the rafters, right?” Tilly joked, smiling as she gave Vanessa’s hands a final squeeze and sat back, releasing her.

“Well…yeah. If you want me to be honest.”

Everyone else around the table smiled and softly chuckled. “It’s both far more boring and mundane, while simultaneously being weirder, than anyone imagines,” Jenny assured her. “Look at me and Ken, here. You didn’t think anything about us was different.”

“True.”

She knew her friend was open-minded and liberal, but while the news that Jenny was kinky didn’t surprise Vanessa, no, it wasn’t a fact she’d readily foreseen.

Her brother was more proof of that.

There was something else she wanted answered. “So I can ask anything?”

Everyone nodded.

“Okay. Then who was Kaden, and why did his death have such an impact on my brother?”

Everyone froze.

ADULT EXCERPT

Silence fell, broken only by the sound of the pool pump kicking on and neighborhood noises, the occasional car passing on the street out front.

“I don’t have any advice to give you,” Reed said. “I wish I did. I still say it’s not your fault. No one blames you.”

“Not a single damn person,” Lyle added.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a downer.” She leaned forward in her chair and stared at the pool. “Anyone want dessert? I bought a key lime pie.”

“In a little bit,” Reed said, also leaning forward in his chair. “I was thinking about taking a dip in the pool.”

Lyle chuckled. “I’m in.”

Before she realized what was happening, the men had stood, stripped, and jumped into the deep end of the pool.

She sat there, frozen, both by the fact that they’d done it…and that they were hung.

Carlo lifted his head, his wubbie falling from his mouth as he whined at the sight of his two new friends in the water.

Before she realized what she was doing, she found herself standing, stripping, and then cannonballed into the deep end next to them.

She broke the surface to the sounds of their warm laughter. She swam over to them, their arms opening to her and around each other.

It felt right sliding her arms around their waists.

“See?” Reed said, his blue eyes looking like sapphire in the dim light. “Isn’t this fun?”

She nodded.

Then, before she lost her nerve, she leaned in and kissed him, relieved that he didn’t miss a beat and immediately kissed her back. She didn’t know, didn’t care what she was doing.

She was feeling and going with that.

While she was kissing Reed, Lyle shifted positions slightly and started kissing the side of her neck. “What do you want tonight?” Lyle softly asked.

Reed let her answer. “I…I don’t know.”

She did know that both their cocks were now hard and had brushed against her a couple of times.

And yes, she was turned on by it.

Lyle gently caught her chin and turned her face so she had to look at him. “How long has it been since you’ve been with anyone?”

Now she felt a little embarrassed. “Five years,” she muttered.

“Mmm,” Reed said. “Then we’ll go slow for tonight. Just a little taste.” He started nibbling on the other side of her neck while he took her hand and placed it on her cock.

Her clit throbbed, at the feel of it, the size of it when her fingers wrapped around his girth.

Lyle took her other hand and placed it on his, too.

Then, Lyle slipped one arm around her back. “Trust us,” he whispered, kissing her again.

She did, floating back and trying to ignore the way Carlo was now whining.

She closed her eyes, enjoying Lyle’s kiss, moaning when someone’s hand slipped between her legs and started playing with her clit. Two more hands, one on each breast, teased her there. She’d guess Lyle between her legs and Reed up top. Meanwhile, she started slowly stroking their cocks, their hungry moans firing her own need.

“That’s it,” Reed whispered in her ear. “Such a good girl.”

Something inside her broke free. She felt wild and untethered, not an entirely unpleasant feeling, especially considering she’d never felt like this before. Her fingers grew more sure on their cocks, working in time with their thrusts as the finger between her legs started moving faster, faster still.

It was a good thing Lyle was kissing her when her orgasm burst free. She let out a crying moan, pleasure, passion, emotion—she didn’t know or care—that he swallowed with his mouth over hers.

And then Carlo the cock-blocking cocker started barking, apparently worried by her response, making both men laugh. She was still trying to get her wits about her, the hand in her pussy falling still but not moving, as Lyle broke their kiss and said, “We’ll play with you later, buddy. This is our playtime.”

* * * *

Lyle hadn’t been sure what Reed was up to by suggesting a skinny dip, but he wasn’t going to argue with him.

This had certainly not been his predicted outcome, but no complaints there.

What Lyle wanted to do was scoop her up, carry her inside, and spend the night making love to her and keep her anchored firmly there, with them, in the present, without a chance for her pain or grief or anything else to burrow in and steal her from them.

So she wasn’t angles and bones. She was sweet, rounded curves, a gorgeous body he could hold onto and not worry about hurting her in the bad ways. She wasn’t fragile, she was real and warm and willing.

They worked their way over to the edge of the pool where Carlo ran around to check on them. Vanessa still hadn’t opened her eyes, and she still stroked their cocks.

With Carlo settling down a little, Reed took over kissing her, one of his hands sliding over the top of Lyle’s. Lyle traded off with him, moving his now free hand to cup and play with her other breasts. She softly moaned, her fingers deliciously tightening around their cocks, and Lyle suspected Reed had worked at least one finger inside her pussy.